Life on Begin's Ops Team: Global Supply Chain, Inventory Planning & More

When hiring at startups you really want individuals with a bias to action Action is everything because you either make the right choice faster than peers or, in the instances where you are wrong, you get real feedback faster Better and faster feedback leads to better future decisions Repeat that every day and you always end up ahead of the business that spends all day in a room talking about what they could be doing

Growth gets talked about like it’s this clean, exciting, upward climb 📈 💸More revenue. 🫂More people. 🎉 More success. But behind the scenes, it usually feels like: Figuring things out while you’re already in motion Fixing processes that worked fine… until they didn’t 😅 Hiring people before you fully know what “good” looks like Wearing 3 different hats in the same day When I started at Sales Hatch, we were a team of 5 Now we’re around 17! 🐣 And the biggest difference isn’t just size, it’s complexity. More people means: more communication gaps more need for structure more chances for things to fall through the cracks The scrappy, “just figure it out” approach gets you off the ground… …but it doesn’t scale the same way. And no one really talks about that awkward middle phase where: you’re not a tiny startup anymore but you’re also not fully built out You’re building the plane while flying it ✈️ That’s what growth actually feels like. And honestly, if it feels a little messy, you’re probably doing it right. 😅 Curious to hear from others here, what’s one thing you wish you knew earlier while scaling a business? #Startups #Growth #Hiring #Recruiting #Sales #BusinessDevelopment #Scaling #Operations #SalesHatch

Most small companies don’t fail because of bad ideas. They struggle because operations never properly scale. In early-stage startups and small ecommerce businesses, operations often look like this: Orders growing. Customer support inbox exploding. Tools everywhere. Processes living in someone’s head. Firefighting becoming the daily norm. At first, it works. Then growth exposes everything. Suddenly: — Response times slow down — Teams duplicate work — Founders become bottlenecks — Customers feel the cracks — Growth starts hurting instead of helping And this is the moment where many small companies realise: Operations isn’t “admin”. Operations is growth infrastructure. The difference between chaotic growth and scalable growth is usually: Clear processes. Simple automation. Ownership. Priorities. Operational clarity. At Vilgain, we reduced a 50-day customer support backlog to 2 business days within a month — not by hiring aggressively, but by redesigning workflows, ownership and automation. At Strapido, I helped launch a new ecommerce brand in under 3 weeks, while also moving warehouse operations and restructuring operational foundations for scale. At Gymshark, I worked on restructuring customer experience processes and tone of voice for the DACH region — improving consistency and operational efficiency across markets. Small companies don’t need complex corporate structures. But they do need operational thinking early. Because great ideas create growth. But great operations sustain it. If you’re a founder or leadership team currently feeling operational chaos as you scale — you’re not alone. And it’s usually fixable faster than you think. I’m currently exploring: — Head of Operations roles — Customer Operations leadership — Ecommerce operations leadership — Fractional / contract opportunities Particularly in scaling ecommerce, D2C and startup environments. Happy to connect or chat. #operations #startups #ecommerce #customeroperations #scaleups #founders #leadership #businessgrowth #startupgrowth

I almost didn't launch Growth Ops Partner. Not because I lacked the experience. Not because the model wasn't clear. Because I kept telling myself I wasn't ready. I kept asking myself there are so many who do the same. The website needed one more revision. The positioning needed to be tighter. The case studies needed to be longer. Meanwhile, founders were drowning in operational chaos, the exact problem I'd spent 17 years solving across 8 countries and multiple industries. Here's the brutal truth nobody tells you: Readiness is just fear with a productivity costume on. I've sat across from founders managing $5M–$20M, $20M- $100M businesses who have delayed hiring their first ops leader for 18 months. Not because they couldn't afford it. Because they were waiting for the "right time." There's no right time. There's only the cost of waiting. Every week, you run operations on gut feel instead of systems: → You're the bottleneck your team works around → Your best people are solving the same problems on a loop → Revenue growth creates more chaos, not more clarity The founders I've seen scale cleanly all had one thing in common: they acted before they felt ready. They hired the operator, built the system, and delegated the function. Then clarity showed up. Clarity doesn't precede action. It follows it. If there's a decision you've been circling for weeks, an ops hire, a process overhaul, a strategic pivot, the information you need probably doesn't exist in another spreadsheet or another strategy session. It exists on the other side of the first move. What's the one thing you've been waiting to feel "ready" for? I'm Shamil, Fractional COO | CSO, helping founder-led businesses build operations that run without them. If this hit close to home, let's talk. #FractionalCOO #FounderLed #OperationalExcellence #ScaleUp #BusinessGrowth #StartupOps #EcommerceGrowth #SaaSOperations #SystemsThinking #LeadershipDevelopment #Entrepreneurship #BusinessStrategy #COO #CSO #GrowthOpsPartner

What I learned building planning systems at Walmart and startups. I've built inventory planning systems for a 10-person startup and for Walmart. Here's the one thing that was identical. When I joined a brand incubation team at Walmart, I expected everything to be different from the scrappy DTC brands I'd worked with. Same problem. Different scale. Too much of the wrong inventory. Not enough of the right stuff. Buying decisions made without full visibility into what was already on order. The tools were more sophisticated. The teams were larger. The dollar amounts had more zeros. But the root cause was the same: decisions made without a closed-loop planning system. Here's what that taught me: Inventory problems aren't a startup problem or an enterprise problem. They're a systems problem. And systems can be built at any scale. What big brands have that small ones don't isn't smarter people. It's frameworks, repeatable processes that take individual judgment out of the highest-risk decisions. The opportunity for small brands is enormous. You can build in 4 weeks what took enterprise companies years and millions to develop if you know what to build.

Not a lack of talent. It’s fear of hiring people better than you. Some time ago I came across an idea often attributed to Steve Jobs : “A players hire A players. B players hire C players.” Sounds arrogant… until you see it in real life. Companies like #Netflix or #Amazon build teams this way: every hire raises the bar. But there’s something people don’t talk about enough: It’s uncomfortable to surround yourself with people better than you. It exposes you. It pushes you. It takes you out of your comfort zone. And still… I think that’s where the interesting part happens. When you’re surrounded by stronger people: ✔️ you learn faster ✔️you get pushed without noticing ✔️you don’t want to fall behind ✔️And you end up growing. Honest question: Do you prefer feeling like the strongest in the room… or the one learning the most ❓ #Leadership #Hiring #TeamBuilding #CareerGrowth #GrowthMindset #Startups #Management #ProfessionalDevelopment

Why Hiring More People Is Not Always the Solution (Especially in E-commerce) Most businesses don’t struggle because of lack of ideas, They struggle because of execution. In e-commerce, this becomes even more visible. • Listings don’t get updated on time • Ad campaigns are not optimized regularly • Catalog issues pile up • And internal teams are constantly stretched. Hiring more people sounds like the solution, but it brings more cost, more management, and more time. At One Sales Hub, we are solving this differently. We provide managed execution teams where trained associates handle the work, and experienced professionals ensure quality, timelines, and accountability. From e-commerce operations like product listings, catalog management, and marketplace support, to backend tasks and ongoing project execution, businesses today need flexible support more than fixed teams. This works especially well for brands and startups that want to scale without increasing fixed costs. If your team is overloaded or if execution is slowing down your growth, this approach might make sense for you. Happy to connect and explore. #ecommerce #amazon #outsourcing #remoteteams #businessgrowth #startups #operations #scaling #digitalcommerce

Startups keep hiring a Head of Product when what they actually need is someone who’s done it before. Not full-time. Just right. Over the past months, I’ve seen the same pattern again and again. Founders stuck in product. CTOs carrying product by default. Teams shipping… but without clarity. And the reflex is always the same: “Let’s hire a Head of Product.” But that comes with: → 6+ months hiring cycle → €150–200K+ commitment → high risk if it’s the wrong fit There’s another model most people misunderstand: The fractional CPO. What it actually is A senior product leader embedded in your business 2–3 days a week. Enough to: → own product direction → structure the team → drive prioritization → build a credible roadmap Without: → full-time cost → long hiring cycles → premature org complexity What it isn’t Not a consultant dropping a deck. Not a project manager with a new title. Not someone optimizing Jira tickets. A fractional CPO owns outcomes. Not just recommendations. Who actually needs this → Seed / Series A founders still carrying product themselves → Strong CTOs who know product isn’t their game → Teams that “have product” but lack direction → Companies preparing for a fundraise and need a clear product story Who doesn’t If you want someone to validate decisions already made this is not the model. If you want a real sparring partner who will challenge you it is. The biggest misconception: This is not a “temporary fix.” It’s a way to de-risk product leadership before committing full-time. In most cases, the impact is visible in <90 days: → fewer wrong bets → cleaner prioritization → more confident teams → stronger narrative for investors I have capacity for one new engagement in Q2. If you’re in one of the situations above — DM me or comment. #ProductManagement #Startups #Founders #B2B #SaaS #ProductLeadership #FractionalCPO #ScalingStartups #BuildInPublic #TechLeadership

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱. 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗲𝘀𝘁. Some of the ideas that now run the world sounded ridiculous when they first appeared: • Jeff Bezos pitched Amazon to dozens of investors in 1994. Many passed because “online bookstores” made no sense. • Airbnb was rejected by multiple investors in its early days and famously struggled to raise $150k. • FedEx’s original concept was given a “C” in a Yale business class because the economics seemed unrealistic. Most breakthrough ideas sound crazy at first. Time changes the label. The real question is: are you willing to hire the person who sounds crazy today? If you are building a leadership team and want help finding those kinds of people, DM me and let’s talk 📩 #ExecutiveSearch #ExecutiveRecruitment #Innovation #Medtech #MedicalDevice #Leadership #Amazon #Hiring #Healthtech #CSuite #BoardSearch #Talent

The $10M Hiring Mistake I got hired to rebuild a healthtech startup after their Big Tech CMO nearly bankrupted them. The pattern is so common it's almost boring: Series A company, 400 people, growing fast. CEO thinks: "We need someone who's done this at scale." Hires a CMO from a household-name tech company. Hi comes in confident. "This is how we did it at [BigCo]." 90 days later: – He's burned the entire annual marketing budget – Fired half the people who actually understood the product – CEO still defending his: "You don't get how real companies operate" By month four, the company had to cut from 400 to 150 just to survive. Here's what nobody tells you about hiring "experienced" executives: They know how to drive a car that's already built. They have zero idea how to build the car. Big Tech executives are trained to optimize systems at scale. Endless budget. Established processes. Teams of specialists. Your startup has none of that. And when they try to import those playbooks, they don't just fail—they destroy. We spent the next six months rebuilding. Created a decision framework where input from IC-2 to C-suite is proportionally weighted. Not because democracy works in startups – because CEO blind spots are expensive. The fix: Hire for the next half-step, not the five-year vision. Someone who understands your stage. Your constraints. Your reality. And build healthy org structure from the beginning. It's cheaper than the alternative. Which version costs more: hiring the wrong "experienced" exec, or building the right structure from day one? #Leadership #Hiring #Startup #OrganizationalDesign #ScalingTeams